High speed printers, such as inkjet, thermal, dye sublimation and dot matrix printers are used to provide vouchers, coupons, tickets, receipts and the like (hereinafter generically referred to as “slips”) to consumers. Such slips are usually made of paper, onto which text and/or graphics are printed, but may alternatively be made of other flexible materials such as cardstock, plastic (e.g., cellophane or Mylar), laminates, metal foil, etc., as long as the material can be fed through the printer transport mechanism. Typically, the slips are discharged to the consumer after printing via a bezel mounted in the front panel of a self-service terminal. Such terminals can be found, for example, in casinos (e.g., slot machines), retail establishments (e.g., lottery machines), transportation centers (e.g., train, bus and subway ticket machines), gasoline service stations (pump receipts), and the like.
One problem that sometimes arises when dispensing slips to consumers is that the bezel becomes blocked. This can occur either accidentally (e.g., by an impatient consumer placing a finger over the bezel output opening while waiting for the slip to be dispensed), or intentionally (e.g., by a person who becomes frustrated with the results of a wager). Once the bezel is blocked, the slip being discharged from the printer has nowhere to go, resulting in a jam in the printer transport mechanism.
It would be advantageous to provide a bezel design that is resistant to jams when the bezel output opening is blocked. Such a design should provide reliable operation and enable easy recovery of the slip once the blockage is removed.
The present invention provides bezel designs having the aforementioned and other advantages.